Kamchatkan and Northern Kuriles Volcanic  Activity
KVERT INFORMATION RELEASE 03-08
Thursday, January 17, 2007, 22:20  UTC (Friday, January 18, 10:20 KST)

SUMMARY OF LEVEL OF CONCERN  COLOR CODES:

KAMCHATKA:
SHEVELUCH: ORANGE
KARYMSKY and  BEZYMIANNY: YELLOW
KLYUCHEVSKOY, TOLBACHIK PLOSKY, KIZIMEN, AVACHINSKY,  KORYAKSKY, GORELY and MUTNOVSKY: GREEN

NORTHERN KURILES:
CHIKURACHKI, EBEKO and ALAID: GREEN

SHEVELUCH VOLCANO: 56°38'N, 161°19'E; Elevation  3,283 m, the dome elevation ~2,500 m.
CURRENT LEVEL OF CONCERN COLOR CODE IS  ORANGE

Activity of the volcano continues and ash explosions up to 10 km  (32,800 ft.) ASL could occur at any time. The activity of the volcano could  affect international and low-flying aircraft.

Seismic activity was above background levels last week. Many shallow volcanic earthquakes and sometimes volcanic tremor were registered all week. According to seismic data, ash plumes up  to 4.1 km (13,400 ft) ASL occurred at the volcano on January 12 and 16. Ash plume had raising up to 4.5 km (14,800 ft) ASL was observed on Sheveluch web-cam on January 16. Strong fumarolic activity of the volcano was noted on January 15-17. Clouds obscured the volcano in the other days. According to satellite data, an invariable thermal anomaly was noting all week.

KARYMSKY VOLCANO:  54°03'N, 159°27'E; Elevation 1,486 m.
CURRENT LEVEL OF CONCERN COLOR  CODE: YELLOW

Activity of Karymsky can resume at any time and ash explosions up to 6 km (or 19,700 ft.) ASL  could occur. The explosive activity of the volcano could affect low-flying  aircraft in the vicinity of the volcano.

Seismic activity of the  volcano was slightly above background levels on January 10-11 and at the  background levels on January 12-13. There was not seismic data on January 14-16, by technical reasons. According to satellite data, a possible weak thermal anomaly at the volcano was observed on January 16-17. Ash deposits in the south and south-east directions from the volcano  were noted on the snow at TERRA MODIS image on January 16, 00:31 UTC (the data from "Rosgeolfond" MPR RF, Sakhalin).

BEZYMIANNY VOLCANO: 55°58'N, 160°36'E;  Elevation 2,895 m
CURRENT LEVEL OF CONCERN COLOR CODE IS   YELLOW

Growth of the lava dome continues. Possibly a viscous lava flow is effusing at the lava dome. Sudden ash emission related to this   activity could affect low-flying aircraft in the vicinity of the   volcano.

Seismic activity did not exceed background levels last week. According to visual and video data,  a weak and moderate fumarolic activity was observed at the lava dome on January  15-17. According to satellite data, a weak thermal anomaly over the dome  was observing on January 15-17. Clouds obscured the volcano in the other days last  week.

IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS OR CONCERNS, PLEASE CONTACT:

Olga  Girina, KVERT, IVS FED RAS
E-mail: girina@kscnet.ru
Tel. (41522) 58627

Svetlana Toloknova, KVERT, KB GS  RAS
E-mail: ssl@emsd.iks.ru
Tel. (41522) 59523

Tom Murray, Scientist-in-Charge, AVO
E-mail: tlmurray@usgs.gov
Tel. 907-786-7497

The Kamchatkan Volcanic Eruption Response  Team (KVERT) is a non-commercial cooperative program of the Alaska Volcano  Observatory (AVO, USA), the Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (IVS)  FED RAS and the Kamchatkan Branch of Geophysical Survey (KB GS) RAS  (Russia). KVERT staff is available in the office from 8:30 AM till 6:00 PM  (KST or KDT) and by phone during the evenings. KVERT uses daily satellite  imagery, information from remote scientific observation stations,  real-time seismic data for 10 volcanoes, and other information to monitor  activity at Kamchatkan and Northern Kuriles Volcanoes.

The official  web-page of KVERT (the Institute of Volcanology and Seismology FED RAS): http://www.kscnet.ru/ivs/kvert/index.html
Archive of daily information KB GS RAS: ftp://emsd.iks.ru/pub/DATA/RTS/Volcanoes 
KVERT Information Releases at the web-page of AVO (Alaska Volcano   Observatory): http://www.avo.alaska.edu/activity/avoreport.php?view=kaminfo